Weak Passwords: “Jesus” Can’t Save You From Password Hackers

“Jesus” is the 21st most common password employed by internet users, but it’s not strong enough to protect your data.  Hackers work around the clock looking for ways to steal your identity, money, and private information. And poor password choices makes their work easier.  http://www.youtube.com/user/CoppermoonWebDesign

Use ‘strong’ passwords to protect your data

We tend to use passwords that are easy to remember, without considering their security strength.  If you are on the internet, you use passwords to look up your bank account, get mail, access Facebook or Twitter, buy the latest best seller from Amazon… each task requires a password.  Most of us view website password management as annoying at best, and a real headache at worst.  Your opinion probably depends on how many password accounts you have.  The more you have, the more of a hassle it seems.

What does a secure password look like?  At least 8 (12 is best) characters, with upper and lower case letters, symbols and at least one number.   Something like ‘A9bQgJt1rzL&’ . But that is hard to remember, so most of settle for something like ‘abc123’ (number 4 on the list) or ‘ninja‘ (number 23).

There are ways to make your passwords both secure and memorable.  For example, let’s say you moved to Phoenix in 1991.  Intermix the letters and numbers, something like this: PHo19en91iX  That is a strong password and one you can remember.

Security software developer Splashdata just released its annual list of the most used and insecure passwords. Their list is based on analysis of file dumps from online hackers.  Some of the entries are surprising, others not so much.  The most used password?  ‘password’ .

Here are some basic password rules to protect your identity, money and information.

• Never post or send your password via email, text, instant message, or on social media sites
• Don’t use your name as your password
• Don’t use the names of your spouse, kids, or pets as passwords
• Change all of your passwords at least twice a year
• Don’t use passwords that could be cracked by looking at your Facebook page.
• Never disclose your passwords in response to an email or a phone call
• Use some type of password management program that can be locked (of course, you have to remember the password for that!).

Here’s the list of the most commonly used passwords, in order of popularity.  If you use ANY password on this list, change it immediately!

password

123456

12345678

abc123

qwerty

monkey

letmein

dragon

111111

baseball

iloveyou

trustno1

1234567

sunshine

master

123123

welcome

shadow

ashley

football

jesus

michael

ninja

mustang

password1

Mobile Payment Technology and Adoption Gains More Traction

Every week it seems that mobile payment technology and adoption gains more traction.  Two articles were posted in the past few days showing that if you haven’t already started thinking and planning for the day when consumers use mobile payments more than credit/debit cards, checks or cash (combined!), now is the time!

First, the Electronics Transactions Association has formed a Mobile Payments Committee to study public policy, regulations and standards for  moving funds with a smart phone. Members include Visa, Mastercard, Discover, Wells Fargo and Capital One.  According to an article posted on VentureBeat,  AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, Google and Apple have joined as well.

venturebeat.com/2012/08/09/the-mobile-payments-committee-att-verizon-sprint-t-mobile-unite-for-the-future-of-payments/

Second,  Diane Mermigas writes in a post that “social media will move mobile payments to the next level”. http://www.businessinsider.com/social-will-move-mobile-payments-to-the-next-level-2012-8

Most organizations don’t use Facebook, Twitter, or texting with any skill.  Missing these vital communications links might mean your members, customers or patients could be picked off by someone who does.

Just as online banking changed the business nearly 20 years ago (yes, it’s been that long!), mobile devices and social media are shifting the world again.

Coppermoon Web Design’s Northern Nevada Literacy Council’s Website

Northern Nevada Literacy Council (NNLC), a non-profit Adult Education program chose Coppermoon Web Design to redesign their website. In an effort to consolodate content and make information easier to access for potential students and business who wish to utilize their services.

Class information, directions to the school and information on programs for business to help strengthen their workforce.

Check out their new site at http://nnlc.org

Coppermoon is a full service Web Design & Technology firm which aims to help businesses compete in this digital age. Follow us on Twitter or Facebook for updates.

 

 

SOPA and PIPA Aren’t Just About Piracy

I am so glad that 1/18/12 is over. I can’t tell you how many websites I regularly visit weren’t functioning normally due to the SOPA/PIPA protest. These bills heading towards congress next week, SOPA and PIPA are supposed to help stop internet piracy, but their are written in such a way that it could hurt the rest of the internet, and the web would perpetually look like it did yesterday. There is a potentially good alternative to SOPA and PIPA called OPEN, check out this chart below that compares the bills:

A Full Explaination of SOPA Can Be Found on SearchEngineWatch.com

TheOatmeal.com was blacked out yesterday, but had a video running instead of their usual website (if you are easily offended do not proceed to the video in question) in the video they said “This is like dealing with a lion escaped from the zoo by blasting some kittens with a flame thrower!” There are better ways to deal with piracy than by passing a bill that is so poorly written that it could potentially shut down any website accused of copyright infringement without due process.

The lawmakers writing these bills did not have a solid understanding of the ramifications. As it has become more clear to them with the outrage over the last several days that it’s a bad thing, the SOPA train has been losing steam. Many of the supporters, even co-sponsors of the bill have withdrawn their support. Many of the Hollywood companies, Time Warner and such are backing it because they are losing millions to pirated material, they deserve a good bill that protects them and their intellectual property, but not at the cost of millions of websites and blogs that would be censored under this new legislation.

If you are in favor of an open internet without censorship make sure that your voice is heard, sign the petition and call or write an email to your congressman asking them to oppose the bill, or if they already oppose it tell them thank you.

Coppermoon is a full service Web Design & SEM firm which aims to help businesses compete in this digital age. Follow us on Twitter or Facebook for updates.

Why are SOPA and PIPA so Bad?

SearchEngineLand.com along with other resources have been helping webmasters and SEO firms prepare for today’s protest of the proposed SOPA/PIPA legislation. Wikipedia and Reddit are some of the biggest names going black for the day.

WordPress and Google’s hompages have been altered to show their solidarity.

Google’s Pierre Far, Webmaster Trends Analyst announced that they would be slowing down GoogleBot’s crawl activity to reduce the effects of the blackout on a sites SEO standings.

Pierre Far posted the following on his Google+:

Hello webmasters! We realize many webmasters are concerned about the medium-term effects of today’s blackout. As a precaution, the crawl team at Google has configured Googlebot to crawl at a much lower rate for today only so that the Google results of websites participating in the blackout are less likely to be affected.

Floating around Twitter, Facebook and accessible from Google’s homepage is a petition to tell congress that we don’t want this kind of censorship on the web. I’ve seen online people saying “Well shouldn’t Wikipedia and Google want to stop piracy?” All of these sites and those supporting this want to stop piracy, but the legislation needs to be rewritten, as it stands it could cripple the internet with far too much censorship. This post from Stumble Upon’s blog gives a good overview of why so many websites are against SOPA and PIPA.

Coppermoon is a full service Web Design & SEM firm which aims to help businesses compete in this digital age. Follow us on Twitter or Facebook for updates.

Web Browsing Helps Productivity

Web browsing can enhance productivity and refresh workers, as compared to other activities like making personal calls or sending personal emails. According to a study conducted by the National University of Singapore when people browse websites they enjoy and search for something that interests them they return to work refreshed and more productive.

Surfing the web on breaks is like taking a coffee break. Based on the study, web browsing is a rejuvenating and enjoyable activity that helps employees be more productive and effective as compared to others who did not take breaks or did other things during that break.

As browsing is shown to increase productivity corporations may want to reconsider their policies on banning certain website, such as YouTube and FaceBook.

 

Essential Elements to Running an Internet Marketing Campaign

Effective internet marketing is a continuous circle of activity, that includes 7 Keys to success.  Right now, with the poor economy, internet marketing is on the rise. Businesses are recognizing the importance of marketing on a smaller budget with a larger reach.

I’m going to break down each aspect over the next few posts, so check back starting on Monday get a break down of each of these elements.

This short video describes the process.  http://tinyurl.com/3bdcwkq

Coppermoon is a full service Web Design & SEM firm which aims to help businesses compete in this digital age. Follow them on twitter or facebook for updates.  

Internet Marketing During Hard Economic Times

During these tough economic times, internet marketing is thriving. Is currently the most effective marketing strategy, and is an affordable way to leverage marketing dollars with the broadest reach. This article talks about internet marketing in these hard economic times.

Coppermoon is a full service Web Design & SEM firm which hopes to help businesses compete in this digital age. Follow them on twitter or facebook for updates.  

 

Is Having a Successful Website Just a Matter of Good Design?

A web designer that I follow published a blog post that attacked “SEO Experts” and as an SEO expert myself, I was offended. But rather than get in a verbal confrontation on his blog, I thought I would just publish my own blog, after all isn’t that why I have a blog? I don’t want to link to his website, simply because I don’t want to give him the traffic. If you really, really want to read it leave a comment and I will send it to you, but I would rather not.

For starters I’m not saying that every company needs to hire an SEO expert (though I would love to help you!) I believe that to be successful you need more than just good web design.

I’m going to talk about this designer’s post and when I refer to him, I will call him “Pablo.” The point of Pablo’s post was that you don’t need an SEO expert, social media or a lot of the SEO components that go into making your site visible to the search engines, his claim is that all you need to be successful is good web design. I agree that a good website with the right programming is essential to your success. But simply having a good website isn’t going to drive traffic to your page, it also won’t tell the search engines that your page is out there, active and relevant. I’ve said before that just having a good website is like building your storefront in the dessert and not telling anyone where it is. There are millions of websites out there so you have to do more than just on the page factors to build your business.

Pablo says the following 3 principles is all you need ( and I’m paraphrasing):

• A website with web design best practices, the end user in mind and properly coded
• Unique and well-written content for people, not search engines
• Quality links

I couldn’t agree more, but if you only do these things and don’t follow the rest of SEO fundamentals you could be missing out on page rank and potential business!

Pablo calls SEO experts “snake oil salesmen of the internet” a bit harsh I would say, but ok. There are SEO scammers out there, to be fair what industry doesn’t have their snakes? He says that our old SEO methods are out of date due to the recent changes to Google’s algorithm. Yes, things have changed in the SEO world since Google unleashed the Panda, we know that content is more important than ever. Does that mean that all of the other SEO components that we have always emphasized get thrown out the window? In Pablo’s blog he says meta tags, keyword rich content, social media, among other off the page factors are all irrelevant.

I feel better getting this off my chest. Pablo is a talented web designer, but I think he should stick to what he knows. I hope that anyone looking to promote their site  takes his blog with a grain of salt and will do further research on what Google is looking for before writing off the principles of SEO.

Google Buys AdMeld

Google has been positioning itself to revolutionize web ads. As they have been sweeping up web ad companies, the latest purchase is AdMeld for $400 million. AdMeld was established in 2008 by Michael Barrett,  formerly of MySpace. AdMeld is a publisher driven utility for optimizing digital ads. Their services allows publishers to access get in-depth analytics on the composition and behavior of their audience, thus optimizing their revenue by filtering ad types and locating low-performance ads.

Google has been positioning itself to try to make it’s mark in social media. It’s intent to dethrown social media giant  Facebook,. Facebook and other social networking companies run their own display ads, where they haven’t thrived but are making strides, Google needs to make sure their arsenal is fully stocked or they may fall further behind in the social networking world.

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